Archive for March 2012

LNG and natural gas have been headline players – and frustrating ones – for over a decade now. There was a time, very recently, when imports were the hot topic, and the hot air expended in debates about terminal siting, waterway access, domestic vs foreign tankers, and security, seemed to almost equal the volumes of natural gas being discussed. Now we comes shale gas and the heated rhetoric around it – phrases such as “awash in natural gas” or “100-year supply” come to mind. Natural gas looks set to become the dominant fuel of the 21st century. How will all this affect the maritime sector?

Should the United States export our gas, or keep it at home? Will natural gas become the dominant domestic motor fuel? Can inexpensive natural gas derail the newfound interest in nuclear power generation – and will it replace coal? Tied to those factors, and given the dramatic fluctuations over the last decade, where will the price go next? Will the independent US market for gas, with its independent pricing, stay the same – or will gas end up, like oil, with a world price? What about shale gas developments overseas – could they take up what looks like a good market for US export gas?

These questions and many more will occupy us for decades to come. And they’ll have a bearing on the maritime world, too, such as US cargoes going in US bottoms with US crews, which could be a shot in the arm for the US merchant marine; or the barging of smaller quantities of LNG coastwise or over inland waterways. And LNG as a marine fuel is just taking off.

This blog will explore these issues and more. And make it a two-way conversation! Comment and criticize, correct and amplify – your advice and point of view will be very important if a true picture is to emerge. Hope you’ll avail yourself of the opportunity to do that!